Dems file petitions for Stand Your Ground special session

Kathleen Haughney

TALLAHASSEE -- Twenty-seven state lawmakers have filed petitions with the state asking for a special session on the Stand Your Ground law.

That is five short of the 32 needed under the law to trigger a formal poll by the Secretary of State's office of the entire Legislature over their support for a special session. If the poll shows three-fifths support, then a special session will be called.

House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston began the petition drive at the urging of the grassroots group Dream Defenders, which has been camped out in the state capitol for more than three weeks, in protest of the George Zimmerman verdict in the shooting of Trayvon Martin.